In a Monday all-county volleyball match, Hamilton Southeastern beat Carmel in four tough sets, 25-22, 27-25, 23-25, 25-17.
Carly Mills led the way for the Royals’ defense with 31 digs, helping Southeastern, last year’s Class 4A state runner-up, to improve its record to 2-0.
“Carly was tremendous tonight,” said Royals coach Jason Young. “She kept us alive in critical points.”
Emily Weber handed out 31 assists, with Delaney Garner hitting 14 kills. Young said Garner was Southeastern’s go-to in big moments, “and she delivered.” Lovie Wallace added 5.5 blocks.
“I thought the Greyhounds played with great determination and defensively were really good tonight,” said Young. “We were fortunate to come away with the victory.”
Macarty McQueen led Carmel with 18 kills and two blocks, while Lauren Evans had 14 kills and 14 digs. Emily Waddell hit 10 kills and made two blocks. Ella Bostic dished out 44 assists to go with 12 digs and four kills, and Lexi Brehl made 22 digs and had three assists.
Another exciting all-county match took place Tuesday at Guerin Catholic, where the Golden Eagles edged out Hamilton Heights in five sets, 25-18, 19-25, 25-13, 20-25, 15-13.
The match was decided by a back-and-forth fifth set. The Golden Eagles used a successful block to up 5-3, then eventually led 10-5, with Claire Castor and Kathryn Loso both hitting kills and Ella Murphy serving an ace.
The Huskies then ran off seven straight points to lead 12-10. Jordan Fryman started the run with a kill and finished it with a net tip. Lily Steiner helped with three aces and Lauren Lewis hit a kill as well. But Guerin Catholic finished the match by winning five of the next six points. Castor had three kills, and a spike from Loso finished the match.
“I was very proud of how the girls kept their even keel,” said first-year Golden Eagles coach Hailey Brown. “They never let go of the energy and they never let go of their confidence. I think that really brought them through the fifth set, especially when things weren’t going our way.”
“We played three freshmen tonight, so I thought they did a great job,” said Huskies coach Steve Ward. Lewis, Steiner and Caroline Stone are the freshmen on the Heights team, one that Ward calls an “old-young team.”
“We had good input from our hitters, we just came up a little short,” said Ward.
The Huskies play tonight at Lebanon, while Guerin Catholic travels to New Palestine on Thursday.
Sheridan opened its season early this week with back-to-back matches on Monday and Tuesday.
First, the Blackhawks fell to Crawfordsville 25-11, 25-7, 25-11. Emma Went had five digs and two kills, while Sierra Duke made one block assist. Kaiden Wilson hit two kills and had a block assist. Lillie Dickerson had two kills while Taylor Bates handed out five assists and served an ace. Abbi Clouser and Jacquellynne Bates also hit one ace.
On Tuesday, Sheridan dropped a Hoosier Heartland Conference match to Clinton Central in four sets, 22-25, 25-15, 25-16, 25-18. Went picked up eight digs, Clouser served two aces, Allie Delph hit eight kills and two aces and Taylor Bates dished out 16 assists.
Noblesville scored a four-set win over North Central on Tuesday, 22-25, 25-16, 25-15, 25-23.
The Millers host Mount Vernon tonight in their Senior Night match.
Fishers swept Lawrence Central 25-5, 25-8, 25-11 on Tuesday.
The Tigers travel to McCutcheon tonight.